Experimental Manipulation of Psychological Involvement with Media

Abstract

The study evaluates the effectiveness of experimental manipulations of transportation, immersion, spatial presence, character identification, and perceived similarity. The meta-analysis reveals that only about half the studies reported significant group differences in the predicted direction. On average, manipulations had a small to medium effect. Certain manipulations were more likely to influence some types of involvement than others. Transportation was impacted by distraction, perspective taking instructions, and meta-narrative information. Manipulation of literary qualities that had a large effect on character identification had no effect on transportation. Stimulus display characteristics had the strongest effect on immersion, whereas manipulations of the media world qualities had a larger effect on presence. Demographic similarity enhanced perceived similarity but not identification. Effect sizes were larger for advertising than for entertainment. Print and videogame stimuli yielded larger effects than videos. Together, these findings identify manipulations that future studies can use to enhance their statistical power.